The artist behind a controversial and widely criticized cartoon of Serena Williams defended his depiction of Williams’ meltdown at the US Open and said it had nothing to do with race.

Mark Knight, a cartoonist for "The Herald Sun" in Australia, said in an interview Monday evening that his portrayal of Williams stomping on her racket as the chair umpire asked Naomi Osaka to let Williams win was an accurate representation of their final match.

“People said I’m a racist because I drew Serena as an African American woman,” Knight explained. “I drew her as this powerful figure, which she is, she’s strongly built. They say I’m racist because I drew Naomi Osaka in the background with blonde hair. Well, she does have her hair dyed blonde.”

“This is how crazy it gets. It gets picked up by social media and it’s like a rolling thunder, a storm gathering intensity until it just turns into a tornado of false accusations and crazy things that aren’t even there.”

“I think these days, I don’t think you can, it’s called punching down,” he said. “You can’t punch down these days. And what that means is you can’t criticize minority groups for poor behavior. You just can’t go there. But I’m a cartoonist and I comment on all topics.”